End of School, 2007

Father's Day

June 17, 2007

Hi:

Just a quick note. We had a really nice vegg weekend. Saturday we went to Fitness First and then dropped Maddie 2, E's friend who had spent the night. We all watched a video Friday night with our homemade Chinese. Then we went down to Ballston Mall and saw a movie called "Once". It's an Irish rock and roll movie and we all liked it very much. We had nachos at home, Cris got a luggage basket for our car roof and we watched another NetFlix. I am working away on the scrapbooks.

Today, I was up first and made magnificent yogurt and fruits for everyone. We had breakfast together and Cris opened his gifts. I got a late Mother Day's present from the girls as well. Then we all went for a bike ride. The girls headed home after awhile and Cris and I rode on down to Rosslyn and found the Virginia suites. We got a number and I looked at the fitness center. They have bikes and a scale and big TV. What else will Cris need? It's 5 blocks from the metro and there's a Safeway quite close as well. These units have kitchens. We will miss him but I imagine the 6 weeks until Oct. 1st will go quickly. I really puffed coming back, lots of hills but Cris thought we might have done 15 miles. Tonight I made t-bone steak from our Mie stash and fresh corn, sweet potatoes, string beans and a spinach salad. It all turned out very well. We watched "High Fidelity" (Cris' present from Susie). I worked on cleaning the stove after I cleaned up dinner and got the beds made up.

They are going to start showing the house to sell Thursday so I think I will be cleaning even more. It will be a busy first part of the week, packing for North Carolina and having Susie's finals and E's graduation dance and ceremony and a dress rehearsal for their dance recital. I will be at Teresa's at their performance so I sort of blew that one but hope if I see the real dress next Wednesday, they won't be too unhappy with me and I am excited to get a visit with Teresa before I head back to work and Santa Fe.

We are thinking of Elizabeth Diehl so much and hope she is feeling better. Lots of anniversaries as Sean said so happy happy! Sean, does Jessica particularly like sopaipillas? The shopping with Matt sounded really really hard! Glad you had some fun too and that you are back to writing. I want to go eat at the GBL and T restaurant when we get back. How cool that their food is so yummy!

Okay off to bed. Our friend, Cynthia will laugh at this letter. It's all about food. I also talked to Linda Harris on the phone and set up when Cris and I will visit her after our Broadway night. She and I went to Austria together and she was in my wedding.

Love Mar

Elizebeth's 8th Grade Graduation

June 21, 2007

HI:

Yes, we had girls lying on our floor getting their hair ironed and E did everyone's makeup before the graduation dance. They all looked lovely. I think only 2 girls were in pants of all that went to the dance. The boys ranged from tuxes to jackets, to nice shirts to shorts and raggy T-shirts that they wore to school that day, plus a couple in costumes. Everyone had decorated beautifully in a Hollywood theme and the food was so nice -- sushi at a prom! The girls didn't eat anything so they wanted ice cream afterwards because they were hungry. The DJ was good and they danced and danced. All in sort of a mash glob of warm throbbing young energy. Cris acted the bouncer and got the kids to stop by me on the way in and I killed my voice saying over and over--put your name on the raffle ticket, tear it off and give it to me and keep the bottom of the ticket. It was fun to get to be there.

It was hard to get up the next morning but we managed and had a little gift giving over our scrambled eggs. I got her poster of Cinderella that all the kids had signed framed for her and Susie had a cute red heart dress shirt. I dropped Cris and E off at the ususal time and then went and got S and took her to school, went back to Swanson and found a parking place and found Cris. The 6th grade band of about 60 kids played for the graduation. What can I say? A school is awesome when the 6th graders can play Pomp and Circumstance. Two of the addresses were great, a real southern politician from the school board and Alex, the prince from Cinderella. The rest were typical let's thank our teachers, parents etc. E and Maddie went with some frinds to the Olive Garden for lunch and Cris and I packed. Then he went and got her and took Maddie and Amber home as well. That took a long time. I picked up Ashley, Amanda and Susie. Susie got an A on her Algebra final. Isn't that great? I trtied to thank her for all those mornings of going for tutoring help these several months. She got an A in English and a C on her final in Biology. It remains to be seen if another teacher will make that interesting for her again. I would say this teacher was her least favorite. I would say both girls had an awesome year.

Susie packed and I cleaned some more and Cris packed and the kids ate again and we packed and cleaned and were out the door and at S's orthadontist appointment 5 minutes early. That was 3:30. The appointment took an hour because the dentist broke a bracket. Fortunately, we learned the 1st class decorating their jackets was cancelled so we got down to dance in time to stop at Pennys and look at bedroom sets for the girls rooms back in Santa Fe. Then we dropped them off and Cris and I drove over to the movies and saw "Ocean's 13". Total trash but lots of fun. "Very pretty men" as Cris said. We picked up the kids and started driving at 9:20 pm. Cris fed us some more picnic food and I drove until 11:30 pm and then he drove the rest. There were lots of gas stations on I-95. We listened to the 6th and last Mediator book by Meg Cabot, but I fell asleep. Then at the last Cris and I had a nice visit and once over the bridge to Topsail Island we all woke up and started looking for the condo, but it wasn't where the directions seemed to say it should be. Cris says, when you marry, find a man who can tie a dimple in his tie [if you care about fashion; otherwise, NBD] and who will stop for directions [that one is important]. We did finally go back to the bar that was still open at 4 am and they explained that we needed to be on further down the island. Then we found the condo rather quickly, unloaded all of our food and went to bed about 4:20 am. We thought we were all awake but once our bodies were horizonal we did all fall asleep. Cris woke hard at 9:30 and I at 11. We haven't seen the girls yet [they got up about 2pm].

Paula got into the house yesterday with the painter. We talked as she went around the house. She talked me into new doors and there is some repair that will have to be done to the dry wall and then the painting. The sad thing is that the new $10,000 roof is leaking. Sigh! So I called Barker reality to deal with that. There is water damage in the dining room again around the sky light. Owning a home is never easy.

Okay off to have some fun.

Love Mar

North Carolina Coast

June 23, 2007

Hi:

We went to Wilmington yesterday afternoon after I had a run on the beach and wading in the ocean. The kids, again slept in. Cris is already on his 2nd book ["Rose," by Martin Cruz Smith, after finishing "Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland]. We went for coffee and ice cream and then quickly stopped at a scrapbooking store and I got 4 more scrap books and more double sided tape. Then we made it to the 3:30 pm movie of "Knocked Up". Definitely too R rated for Mie but it was a good movie. There was some good acting especially by some 2ndary characters. Cris had a map of Wilmington and had plotted out where everything was and navigated us around very nicely.

We stopped by to get E some supplies (poor dear, she is not taking kindly to having her period) and some flowers for Paul and Cheryl. They were home and Cheryl and I drove out to get some Bar-b-que which is pulled pork around here and potato salad and ice tea ande some hush puppies. Then Cheryl cooked shrimp (tons of it--some they had got off the boat in 50 pound blocks, they were giant and I assume what Mary loves) and fresh corn on the cob. The strawberries are done but blueberries and blackberries are in season. We all went swimming in their pool and then had this great dinner. Susie, Elizebeth and Greg watched a Harry Potter movie. He wanted them to play with him but unfortunately, the girls are adults now. He had made a great toll stop to get up the stairs that would cost a 1 cent to go up and 5 to come down (he had it the other way but changed at Cris' suggestion that once up he had a captive market) but then no one came to his toll stop and he was asleep in his bed when we went to get him for ice cream pie. He is tall and very thin and a handsome child. He is totally into Star Wars (probably from Aunt Dorothy and his Dad) and subs and missles, planes and ships. A typical boy. He had a boy sitter this week who played video games with him 5 hours straight.

The move for Paul and Cheryl sounds to mostly be positive. They can probably get quite a bit of acreage and Paul can have a shop in part of the 3 car garage or put up a shed. The schools are much better up there for middle school than here in North Carolina. Cheryl might have to travel to China once a year which could be the worst thing. We teased that maybe they would send Paul too to take care of her. Paul may have a much better job as well up there. He is bored down here in what he is doing. Also, they can book themselves into the condo for a ocean visit next summer and still see their friends etc. They will only be 3 and 1/2 hours from Cheryl's parents and brother and family instead of 13 and Greg loves his big cousins. So although moving is never easy, they seem to be excited for this new opportunity.

We all commented on Dorothy taking on a lot of Bob's work too and being a little worried. So far, I think she is keeping up with it. Farming is tons of work. Look at Annie having to worry about those weeds --I hope Bill will keep gardening for us.

Okay, I need to get out there. It is cloudy today. I hope it doesn't rain on Sunday when they come down to play with us.

Love Mar

June 24, 2007

Hi:

A very lazy day yesterday. The kids slept late and Cris went to the pool. I ran and we watched Firefly with our fresh flounder. Played hand and foot but didn't have enough cards. Suse and E skunked us. We got the fish at the nearest grocery store and stuff to feed Paul and family today. I finished my fantasy book. It was really fun and good. Cris is on book 3 ["The Time of Our Singing" by Richard Powers] but he might have to give it to me. My books I chose aren't fun enough.

Love Mar

June 26, 2007

Hi:

We had a great time in the sand on Sunday. All of us got sunburned, unfortunately. E's was the worst. Paul and family got here about 11 and we had bagels, lox and cream cheese. Then we headed down to the beach. We played in the water a long time. greg had forgotten his swim trunks so Cheryl went on a shopping spree also picking up a peeler and a few things we mentioned the condo could use. They are coming down here Friday and part of Saturday to enjoy and I expect to make more repairs.

Cris made pasta primavera and I made a fruit salad and a green salad and we had a great meal, drinking the bottle of wine that they brought this. The adults visited and Greg played video games and the girls played on their computer in their room. Towards the end, Paul went out to play tennis with Greg. He played with Greg a lot. He's a good Dad and Cheryl is a great Mom. Greg is growing up and he is looking forward to a number of things that he can do in New York. They had to leave about 5 so Cheryl could make it to her volleyball game. She plays every Sunday night.

We vegged Cris and I ended up watching "Die Hard 1."

Yesterday, we went into Wilmington and did some furniture shopping. First, we stopped at a tourist gift shop and everyone got something. I think we will be looking at furniture for awhile. Then we drove out to see the battleship North Carolina and had our picnic lunch in the car finishing our book-on-CD. It was lightning and so we didn't go on the metal ship, but it was huge and impressive. We ate our lunch and then drove back out to the new mall and saw the movie "Nancy Drew," a very sweet movie. After the movie, we shopped and I bought a blouse at NY and Company and we got 2 books at the book store. Then Cris took us to the Dockside restaurant on the intercoastal waterway and we had a great fresh fish meal. (Note to Mary-more boiled shrimp!). We got back home and played a great game of hand and foot. The girls almost came back to win so they won big the first night and we won just barely last night. I got some more cards at the gift shop that morning.

Today, we are vegging and beaching and tomorrow we have to go home. It is fun to be on vacation!

Love mar

MAE opens for OK Go opens for The Fray at the Merriweather Post Pavilion

Marilyn Visits Teresa in Chicago

From Marilyn, June 30:

Hi:

I had quite an adventure getting to Teresa last night. I went to the wrong airport. Teresa said we might do some mega-work while I was here and sometimes your psyche knows that and you get dingy. Anyway, I am at Dulles way early and I look at my boarding pass and realize that the airport looks wierd. I ask an airport guy and he says oh no that's Reagon. I called Cris and he immediately started driving towards me the knight in shining armor. He was down in alexandria with the kids for the dance concert. Then I thought it through and thought I should just take the bus back to West Falls Church and jump on the metro. I called Cris a few more times and we decided that's what I should do. It all went fine. The bus left in 15 minutes, I walked right onto a metro and I had to wait 7 minutes to change to the blue line. Once I got to the correct airport, my flight number wasn't up on the board. I asked at info and she said all the computers were kooky, just go through security and wander down the American Airlines terminal. There was only one man ahead of me in the security line and I went to Gate 28 on my pass and they were going to "St. Louis. The attendant was able to tell me to go to Gate 32. They were late deplaning the plane so I even had time to go to the bathroom. I finished Susie's book One Last Wish and had my supper. Teresa ran right out and grapped me as I came out. She expertly drove us home through all kinds of amazing freeways. She has an I-Pass so you just drive through the tolls and they grab your number magically.

We talked and talked and meditated and fell into bed. I couldn't sleep right away but managed to get up this morning at 8:30 and meditated with Teresa and now we are planning our day. We might stop at Filene's Basement they have 15% off today and then onto Oak Park to the Frank Lloyd Wright town. And the many many things on our list.

Hope you all have a marvelous weekend. Cris said the dance concert was 4 hours long! We thought Mary was crazy. He deserves a parent medal. The kids looked great and he was thrilled to see Susie looking so great up there and Elizebeth was the only one who could reallly do everything, hands and feet in his humble opinion. Some of these kids were in Jazz 4 and 5 but E was head and shoulders over them. She should dance and she should do So you think you can dance. Love you all and thanks to Cris for my Mother's Day present of seeing Mie (which was so wonderful) and now teresa. Also fabulous already and we haven't even done anything yet.

Love Mar

Cris and the Girls at home

Marilyn and others:

I should write a little about our day "in case you are homesick" (HAH!). I kissed Mar goodbye at the Metro and got the girls down to the high school auditorium by 5:45 and dropped them off. I didn't plan my attack south very well, and the Maginot Line of I-95/495 kept me at bay for a while (never ever drive south through the Mixing Bowl on Friday Rush Hour!). But I was just dropping the 4 books-on-CD into the Fairfax County Library book deposit (since we are never going back down to Fort Belvoir again now) when Marilyn called saying she was at the wrong airport.

So there is a "Fairfax County Parkway" that just happens to run from Fort Belvoir all the way to Dulles. 50 mph and occasional lights, but still a "direct route" (except for the part that isn't built that causes a detour back through Springfield at first). I took off trying to get from her, but it would have been a long ways and we still would have had to make it down I-66 during rush time and so she did take the bus back (a nice $18 tour of the Dulles toll road) and still made it to Reagan for her flight. Good thing she started real early.

When she called and said don't come save her, I was way out in left field in parts of Fairfax County I didn't even know existed. But our fantastic NoVA map got me headed back to Alexandria. I was driving right by the JC Penny's at 7, now late for the concert but I said, what the hey, what's missing a few dance numbers when your girls don't show up until scene 34 (of 44 in the first "act" alone!) and so I went ahead and stopped and got the "room in a box" that Susie wanted (new sham, bedcover, pillowcovers and decorative pillow to decorate her bedroom). So that was both errands done so we never have to go south of Bailey's Crossing again.

When I got to Bishop Ireton H.S. at 7:45 there was no parking. For blocks. In all directions. So I hoofed it from some residential neighborhood a ways away, hoping I could remember how to get back to the car in the dark. I had realized that if Marilyn had bought tickets she had not given them to me so I was prepared to bluff my way in. But 3 (?) tickets were waiting at a will-call, and they seated me between numbers. There was a section up front on the right that had been blocked off, probably for baby dancers now backstage, and so I got to sit real close where I could see.

And yes, it was 4 hours long (thank god I only had to sit through 3 and a quarter...). My comment: it was like, two nice NDI shows back to back, and hence one too many. The program's "ensemble" dancers got to do way too much and most others only one little one. But the parents of the ensemble dancers got their money's worth I guess. Except that those kids had a two-hour director's meeting later that night, and then three more shows this weekend. There are going to be some sick kids on Monday. I won't say anything about dance nazis. But Elizebeth and Susie looked great in their three dances. I may not have the story correct, but the head of the dance program (who had never seen them dance before in their little Wednesday night class at the Fort Belvoir/Landsdowne studio) came up to Elizebeth after the show and gave her a terrific compliment (well deserved in my opinion!) on her dancing.

There was no ice cream open at 11:30 pm, so we came home. Elizebeth had a stack of waffles to unwind.

I got up about 9:30 am and watched Season 2 episode 21 of Grey's Anatomy. I then got the girls up (Susie was already laptopping) and we had bagels & lox, and then we dressed and headed to the mall. While I was in the shower, Susie came in and said, "Dad, the workmen are here." I said, "Huh? What workman" and asked her to tell them to wait outside and I'd be down in a few minutes when I was dressed. I found four very nice mostly Spanish speaking guys who wanted to get to "2030 Westmoreland St., Falls Church 22043" and had directions in Spanish to our house. They were pleased I was nice to them, tried to decipher their Spanish, and got out my super-NoVA map, and eventually I sent them to what I think may be 2030 SOUTH Westmoreland in the 22043 Zip code north of us in Fairfax County. But we had no tile for them to install, and I'm sure they needed the work.

We deposited E's graduation check from Poohbah and got some money out of Chevy Chase and the Bank of Cris. I didn't speak to the manager about a credit/debit card for Susie as he had a long line of people ahead of me. I dropped the girls at the Tysons Corner Mall, and I drove over to Borders. I could only park for free there for two hours which I mostly spent reading Floyd Landis' autobiography, just out. Then I came back to the mall and parked and went into Barnes&Noble. I milked a coffee while reading a visual history of Stargate SG-1. About 3:30 the girls got shopped out and we came home.

I read more Floyd Landis stuff on the web -- while we can never really know what the truth is and whether he ever used illegal performance enhancing drugs, it is very clear he is the subject of a personal vendetta by bad French people, there is no scientific proof he took drugs (the "positive tests" that are "fool-proof" that you read about have been thoroughly debunked by his people in fair and open public discussion), and anybody being that open can't be guilty in my opinion. Sure, one of his advisors mentally "broke" under the horrible pressure they have been under by the out-of-control vendetta by the anti-doping czars and did a personally horrible thing to Greg Lemond in May, but Floyd is even open about that (and he fired the guy immediately). It seems to be getting crazy now -- the United States anti-doping agency so doesn't want to lose face and let Floyd win that they are not pursuing athletes with solid scientific proof they doped because they can't afford the legal fights and are now devoting most of their resources just trying to break Landis financially as an example. This may turn into a law case for the ages, if Landis can keep the funding going. I may contribute to the "FreeFloydFund" myself, and write to my congressman asking for an investigation into the taxpayer-funded USADA.

Anyway, I made Chinese and we watch more Grey's Anatomy. The girls did the dishes (and laundry without being asked by me) and I helped E prepare her pictures for her scrapbook. She found some VJAS (Virginia Junior Academy of Science) pictures on the web, and I updated the blog with a couple of them (check out "April Birthday's and May Visitors"). I played around on Netflix. And now I've written this, and off to bed. Plan is to be at Shirlington movie theater by 11:20 am for cheap tickets -- the girls will see "Waitress" (which Mar and I already did) and I'll go to "You Kill Me" -- another "lovable hitman" movie like Grosse Point Blank maybe!

Love ya,
---Cris

More from Marilyn, July 2:

Hi:

Well, it's 11am and we are having our omelets. Teresa lost 1 1/2 pounds so we'll see how she does tomorrow. We did incredibly with our eating. I will vacation at T's anytime.

Saturday we went to Oak Park and visited the Frank Lloyd Wright houses there. I enjoyed that. I missed how in DC most things are free -- it was $12 to visit the house, and would have been another $12 to go into the Unitarian church and I wouldn't pay it!

Yesterday, we got out of here in a good amount of time and made it into the city to eat at Karyn's a raw foods restaurant. It was a Sunday brunch and so we got to try a huge variety of things. We had plate number one that featured little scoops of hummus like things and dried kale that was like a potato chip and veggie crackers and bread sticks. I had a delicious green soup which was avacado and broccoli and T had a squash soup. They also served peach smoothies. Then we were full but we continued onto our 2nd plate. There were tacos, California rolls, lasagne and meatloaf and several other things I can't remember. then we went back for our third plate which was a chewy nut bar that Mie would have loved (we did too), an apple oatmeal like dessert and carrot cake.

Then we were off to the theater. Somehow our MapQuest directions didn't quite work but T just sort of felt her way into the city. She has that inner map like Cris does which I have no talent for. We had time to park and go to the bathroom. The Color Purple is one of the most moving musicals I have ever seen. I was weepy at intermission because of her complete lack of anything hopeful or happy in her life. At the end of the show, there was such an incredible transformation into joy I just sobbed and sobbed. I shared my handkerchief with Teresa. She thought that was incredibly sisterly. The show is about sisters. The most incredible thing is that the main character hardly spoke and only sang very low at the beginning and by the end she was the star above the whole chorus doing that amazing African-American singing that only they can do. We were blown away.

Then we changed into our tennis shoes and walked down to Millenium Park. It was gorgeous and the weather perfect. They were having The Taste of Chicago so there were lots of people on the lawns but not too crowded to walk. We got to go out on the wharf and see all the boats and the lake.

We came home again Teresa sort of just feeling her way back to the freeway and we watched some of the Secret, a movie Paula and T have been wanting me to watch. Then I was off to bed.

So we are going to shop and go to a movie today. Hope you all have a great day. It will be nice to have the 4th of July break it up.

Love Mar and Teresa

And the last from Marilyn, July 3:

Yesterday Teresa and I walked and then looked at all the pictures she had on her computer. It was fun seeing NYC again, Bob and Sean. Then we had a delicious lunch about 2. Teresa had been telling me about her Treasure Map so I wanted to make one too. She shows you millions of pictures and helps you just emotionally choose ones that would help you keep to your dreams and plans. I was able to articulate that I want to keep the flow and ease in my life this fall even though I will work 30 hours a week. Then she made a collage and you put that up on your refrigerator etc. It helps you just to say the words and see the pictures of a wonderful woman (me) flying off on a rocket which symbolizes staying expansive, a woman runner, a cartoon of a little girl just belting out a song with joy, a money tree (so I don't worry about money and take too many students), some dream houses (because Cris and I are playing around with this idea of opening a guest house where people would come like we did to Paul and Cheryl's but Cris would help them plan their touring and we would cook them healthy meals and their touring would involve a lot of walking. The vacation where you lose weight while having fun--but more fun than a fat farm. Don and Kathi inspired us). I loved doing that with Teresa and it took several hours to complete. She is amazing how she can feel the picture and say Yes that's just right or no that isn't good.

Then we walked again and it was time for us to go to the airport. We were still talking a mile a minute when she had to drop me off. An incredible weekend with Teresa, that's what it was. We couldn't remember when we got to spend so much time together just the two of us if ever so we promised to make it happen again!

I finished One Last Wish and started The Long Walk on the way back on the airplane. It's about 7 men who escape from a Siberian prison after WW 1. Very intense and fun! My flight came in about 6 minutes early and Cris was there and I had to wait only about 5 minutes. I called him when we landed but he was keeping track of me on the computer.

The girls had to show me everything they had done. E is making a Virginian scrapbook (she will bring it to work on at Annie's). Susie slept until 1 pm so she said she needed to do some stuff today. They had both got some MORE cute clothes. Susie bought a skirt that was a size 7. All her jeans were 11's still.

I like T's vacation. I was 146.6 this morning so I lost 4 pounds from the big gain from eating gorp non stop coming back home from North Carolina.

I had my SR refund check in the mail and our Virginia state income tax refund so that was a fun way to start the day.

Okay, off to this day of preparation before the 4th of July and Marla, Matt and Barbara coming!

Love Mar

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